For several years I managed the computers at a local community centre cybercafe, and I now supply refurbished p.c.'s and linux upgrades to around 150 computers in the local area. For this Ive used our "ecopup" customized Puppy 2.15ce. Obviously the browser has been a big focal point of the research Ive done into "what people want" Recently Ive been playing with .pet/sfs/pup_412 creation and found out that the Firefox package that I spent so long customizing works perfectly in puppy 4.2!

After updating the java package from Ecopup (1.5.09 on ecopup) to 1.6.12 Ive created three separate packages which Ive done some testing of on 4.2 betas and release candidates and Im yet to suffer a crash. Pick whichever format suits your needs.

This is a puppy "Squash File System" pack that can be downloaded and placed in the same folder as your pup_420.sfs on your hard disk/usb drive etc. Rebooting will activate it. It wont get loaded into your computers memory at bootup like the pup_420, but read from the .sfs file when it is loaded. Its a good compromise for mid-range computers between speed and available computer memory, or when disk space is at a premium.

This is a standard .pet package that you can download and install by clicking on it. It needs about 200MB of disk space to do this, and about 150MB to install. The advantage of using this is that computer with low RAM can still use it, and its compatible with "FULL" (rather than frugal) installs.

This is a new pup_420 package for the newly released "deepthought", that has this browser built in (merged). If you have a lot of RAM (192mb or more) and do a lot of web-browsing then this is this is the best option for you. It will allow the browser to be loaded into memory so it will start and run more quickly than the other methods. Simply download it, rename your existing pup_420.sfs (say to pup_420.sfs.bak) and put this in its place.

Features/Plugins

All of the security options are set to remember NOTHING by default...cybercafe style

ThemeMyFirefox Theme for that "Nearly Internet-Explorer" that thankfully shrinking 4/5th of web users that still use Internet Explorer out of habit. Found to have an amazing effect to calm newb-nerves For those with Microsoftitis, there are plenty of other themes too a few clicks away.

Features
Tab preview (hold mouse over tab), individual yet innocuous crosses to individually close tabs (with undo feature)...both of these are just to the right of the tab bar.

Tab showcase, which will bring up a window with thumbnails of all open tabs...great for when you have a lot of tabs open and you cant remember which one is which.

Remembers open tabs between sessions (shutting it down and restart)

New Java supports extra search functions on ebay. It also works fine for all facebook functions (chat, notifications, multiple photo uploader). The ever popular runescape also works...but I believe you will need to add graphics acceleration (DRI) if you want high resolution mode.

Bookmarks toolbar - This is a list of commonly used bookmarks, categorised under Local, Linux, News (mainstream and alternative/new), video, email, search, (social) networking, shopping, games, jobs, Dating and Misc. These are the most common websites we found people were using at the cybercafe, as well as some more "socially responsible" sites such as NHS direct Health forums, care2.com, a "fix it" section and freecycle. Weve also put some linux specific sites in such as the puppy linux sites/forums, Distrowatch and under misc there is a link to media-convert.com, which is great for converting file formats that arnt yet puppy-compatible.

The toolbar bookmarks can also be downloaded separately as an xhtml file, which can be imported into any browser (seamonkey/opera/other firefox etc) from here.

Ad Blocking with adblock plus which blocks loads of different advertisments including all google ads (i.e. like the ones for puppy housetraining at the bottom of this forum!) Right clicking and selecting "Block" will block any new ads adblock doesnt yet know about...which isnt many.

McAfee Siteadvisor - This plugin is basically a blacklist of know phishing sites or ones that try and inject malicious code into vulnerable windows machines (not your puppy linux however). It has helped a lot of people round here not fall for those deadly phishing scams.

Text Zoom in and out buttons- for easier reading and/or for the sight-impaired.

Three Day ahead Weather forecast - This is currently set to Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire England. Unless you also have the misfortune to live in [urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_Problem]Britains favourite internet joke town (NSFW)[/url], you will need to do a search for your area, this can be done with a text search from "tools>addons".

VideoDownloader - Downloads flash movies from a great many sites. It also contains options to convert videos into avi/mpg/mp3/etc formats from flash .flv using lame and ffmpeg linux plugins...I havnt been able to figure these out yet so help appreciated.

User Agent Switcher - Will get past the restrictions on Microsoft's "free" (with every Windows Licience) Hotmail email service sending using linux OS. Just go under "tools>user agent switcher" and select a windows OS/Browser combination. Another handy trick with this plugin is to gain access to sites that require "free registration" (spam permission) to view content. Setting the agent as a google search "bot" will allow you access without registration, as often these sites use a check to allow the google indexing service in to list their site in google results.

The .sfs and .pet packages will also put a special desktop icon/shortcut in you /root/my-applications/bin folder. This can be got to using the left hand side pWidgets pop out tray in Puppy 4.2 upwards, or dragged and dropped out of the folder at /root/my-applications/bin onto your desktop. It features a special tooltip function and also a double click handler. If you double click it (common newb mistake) it will still only bring one instance of firefox up, not two. If using the pup_420.sfs method, then it overwirtes your defaultbrowser settings, meaning the "browse" icon on the desktop will launch firefox. This should be a lot quicker as its held in memory using this method. Other programs that open/call web browsers should now use firefox instead of seamonkey. Seamonkey is still available from the start menu>internet from the taskbar.

Heres a run down of the plugins Ive used as a screenshot with plugin versions:-

Workarounds/Bugfixes

You may encounter 2 problems when running Ecofox....here are the workarounds

Fullscreen Flash - JWM/Flash have a problem working together, to fix this, either use ICEWM as your windows manager (included in 420), or install the updated JWM from Patriot.

Webpage resizing
Ive encountered a bug with some installations running at 1024x768 screen resolution, the size of the webpage goes across the screen, meaning the user has to resize horizontally to see the right hand side of the page.

This is "fixed" by changing to 1024x1280 resolution...well at least you have the "zoom" button _________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Sorry, my server is down atm!Last edited by ecomoney on Thu 21 May 2009, 09:19; edited 3 times in total

This browser has more tricks up its sleeve than the current world financial system. If I hadnt been up all night and have an important presentation for the new cybercafe tomorrow I would put more time in to explain them.

Thanks for testing steve, Ive recompiled the .pet package, tested and reuploaded to the same place. It seems it hadnt uploaded properly, probably due to my intermittant wireless connection at the moment. It should be available about 25 minutes after this post time._________________Puppy Linux's Mission

My apologies...Ive been trying to track down this error, but Ive just been helpfully informed by another forum user that I made a packaging error with the .pet. The problem was caused by me renaming the .pet from the original directory name I used dir2pet on from just "ecofox" to firefox-2.0.0.20-ecofox.pet, as I wanted to include version information.

Am recompiling the .pet now, but the workaround (If my thinking is correct) would be to rename the dowloaded .pet to just "ecofox.pet".

I will make sure I dont make the same mistake twice _________________Puppy Linux's Mission

The new .pet should be uploaded about now. I would appreciate if someone would download and try it, just to be sure its ok.

Ive recently been getting the message attached (in the .jpg) about having to upgrade to firefox 3...not til you get firefox 3 stable Mozilla!!! Ive turned off automatic updates for 2 in my copy of the browser, Im hoping this will make that message go away (there are no more scheduled updates for firefox 2 in any case). I also want to add the puppy (wellminded) search to the list of included searches in the dropdown box in the top right. The only other problem is that the McAfee sitadvisor seem to want to put a search box in the bottom panel of the browser, which would make it look better if it were removed (there are plenty at the top). Theres still the bug with fullscreen flash I hope to track down somehow.

After this I will re-compile the package (adding the /root/.mozilla config directory?) and re-upload it when Ive completed these changes and its been given chance to be used by a few more people from the forum too.

After that I will be making a request for it to be added to the official repositories, so it can be available from the "install" icon on the desktop _________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Some more bug reports have come in...apparently there is a bug where the scroll bar appears and disappears, causing the text to jump from right to left...Ive yet to track this down...but I think it might be in "about:config" somewhere? Apparently it is evident when using the search function on ebay.

I have seen (from one of my testers) this version will also automatically upgrade to version 3.05 of firefox on version 4.2, and that this produces (in his opinion) a much smoother experience...but still with some crashes.

I intend to test the theory out when I have bugfixed/reconfigured this version._________________Puppy Linux's Mission

ok, downloaded and placed in /mnt/home. Changed the name to firefox_412.sfs. ran the startup config and it said there were no .sfs in the /mnt/home folder.

Rebooted

Still will not load into startup config.

Mounted and navigated through the folders to the firefox logo and clicked. Got a box that said borderless firefox starting, then it went away and nothing happened. Help!_________________Instead of looking out Windows, I'm playing with my Puppy.

Did you untick the box at the bottom of the new bootconfig, I think it says something like "ignore all the above, load everything with _412 in the filename".

You could also try mounting it and copying everything to the bottom folder ("/"), i would make a copy of your pup_save.2fs first to be on the safe side.

How much RAM have you got? I could make you a new pup_412.sfs with it included. It would have the added advantage of running in memory then (like seamonkey) and be super fast. You will need at least 256mb for that though.

Im really sorry I cant be of more help hondasid, I am new in the ways of packaging.

Edit: I see you have posted your specs....do you want me to make you a new pup_412.sfs if your running it on your 256 machine? Im afraid its getting a bit light here, but I could do it tommorow._________________Puppy Linux's Mission

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